The Global Industrial Military Complex

“For we are not contending against flesh and blood but against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” Ephesians 6 verse 12

When President Dwight D Eisenhower gave a Presidential address to the American Nation on 17th January 1961 (https://youtu.be/8y06NSBBRtY) he warned them about the rise of the growing menace of the Industrial Military Complex for the whole world. Yet look how far this industry has developed in the 21st century?

The Big Players

Today this multi-billion global industry is dedicated to keeping war as a means of making huge amounts of money for multifarious individuals and groups. With huge organisations like BAE systems and Thales being amongst the major players. If you follow this link you will see how many companies are involved, and this list is by no means in exhaustive, these are only the top one hundred companies; http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/mar/02/arms-sales-top-100-producers

You can then begin to see what a huge money spinner this industry of human slaughter is for everyone concerned and this is before we look at all the service industries that support it.

The Dehumanising Effect of Modern Warfare

We are also seeing the increased use of civilian operators, from private weapons companies, using their technical expertise to work alongside military personnel in theatres of war across the globe. Most notably in the use of drones.

This ever increasing use of drones to kill from a safe distance, without regard to international boundaries, is another dehumanising aspect of modern warfare. Link this with the play station mentality involved and there is a readily available source of recruitment from personnel raised as children in the video gaming world. Many of these personnel will have already been psychologically and emotionally desensitised to killing through the use of video games. The link is just one of many psychological studies looking into this phenomenon; http://psychcentral.com/news/2006/07/28/video-games-desensitize-to-real-violence/137.html

What’s the Real Aim?

When one looks objectively at the Global Industrial Military Complex we can see that it has nothing to do with maintaining World Peace or keeping us all safe. Rather it has the opposite, destabilising effect on the whole world. It is heavily weighted in favour of the few, not the many, because the motivation and agenda that pushes it is driven ultimately, as I see it, by power, money and greed.

There is a strong ‘evil’ or negative spiritual aspect which can be viewed as nothing less than a ‘blood lust’ that is not human. I believe St Paul hints at this in his epistle to the Ephesians in the quote that starts this blog.

Despite what anyone tells you; it is not ‘natural’ to kill anything and it does not come easily for most human beings. If we had to personally kill the meat we eat many of us could not do it. The military on the other hand are ‘taught’ to kill and most of humanity has been brainwashed, pushed and forcibly coerced into doing this. From studies conducted it has been found that in war it is only 12% of the military that does the killing see the link below.http://military-sf.com/Killing.htm

Finally please remember to do your own research on this topic. Some links below may be of interest to you but I leave the last comment to Einstein;“My pacifism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of men is disgusting. My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred.” Einstein.

My name is Duncan Clarke trained for the ministry at Wycliffe Hall Oxford and Ordained in the Church in Wales in 1978. Over the years I have worked in many places; as a USPG missionary in Trinidad and as a prison chaplain. At present I am Vicar of St Ambrose Church in Leyland; I am a member of APF and deeply committed to world peace and the elimination of war.